Berthold Schwarz

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Representation by André Thevet (1584): Berthold Schwartz, Inventeur de l'Artillerie
Berthold Schwarz on a fountain at Freiburg City Hall
Berthold Schwarz on a glass window by Fritz Geiges

Berthold Schwarz (also Bertold Schwarz , Berthold the Black or Bertholdus Niger ) was a Franciscan and alchemist in the 14th century from Freiburg im Breisgau . According to a legend , he is said to have discovered the gunpowder and the cannon by chance around 1359 (according to other sources, 1353) , but this is largely doubted today.

Invention of black powder

The legend can be summarized as follows: A friar with the name Berthold is said to have pounded saltpeter , sulfur and charcoal in a mortar during alchemical experiments , placed them with the pestle on the stove and then left the room. A short time later, there was an explosion. The brethren hurried up to discover that the ejected pestle was so firmly stuck in a ceiling beam that it could not be pulled out even after touching the relics of St. Barbara . Then the mortars or pots used served Berthold as a template for the first primitive cannons. The name for the black powder, the name “mortar” for short-barreled high-speed cannons and Saint Barbara as the patron saint of the artillery are said to go back to this incident .

Franz Maria Feldhaus cites various German manuscripts from the 15th century that speak of an inventor, Master Berthold . The earliest document is an anonymous manuscript on pyrotechnics from 1410 from the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. Bertold is not referred to as a religious, but as a master of the arts and alchemist, i.e. with a university degree. Other manuscripts from the early 15th century also refer to him as Greek. Since the end of the 15th century, Bertold has been localized in books in various places; he is listed there as a religious (Benedictine or Franciscan), master's degree, alchemist or without a profession. Heinrich Hansjakob , who wanted to prove the existence of black in the 19th century and collected documents for this purpose, gives the earliest mention of Felix Hemmerlin (Malleolus), who in a book published around 1495 (De Nobilitate) says that a skilled alchemist named Bertholdus niger ( that he was a religious is not mentioned) heated saltpeter, sulfur and a metal treated with mercury in an alchemical experiment in a closed pot, which then exploded. In another variant, Bertold heated sulfur, saltpeter with coal or linseed oil, a mixture that exploded. From this observation, according to Hemmerlin, Schwarz developed primitive cannons (“rifles”) or mortars. Sebastian Münster (Cosmographia), who refers to Achilles Gasser , reports on the invention of the cannon in 1354 (long after the first reliable evidence in Europe) by a German chemist Berthold Schwartz. Gasser himself describes Bertold as an alchemist and a Franciscan.

Various attempts were made to find historical people who could be brought together with the legend and who connect Bertold in particular with southern Germany and Freiburg. The historian Hans Jürgen Rieckenberg sees in Berthold Schwarz the Constance canon Bertold von Lützelstetten (a place near Constance ), who was a member of the cathedral chapter there from 1294 to 1310 and as “magister artium Bertoldus” four times in the Parisian directory from 1329 to 1336 University occurs. Hansjakob identified Bertold with a Konstantin Angeleisen or Anklitzen, whose family name can be traced back to Freiburg, and who fled to a monastery in Prague because of his work as an alchemist and was executed there in 1388.

It has been proven that the invention of black powder can be classified before the 14th century and that it was already known in Europe ( Roger Bacon , Liber Ignium ) around 1260 and before that among the Arabs and in China (see article Black powder ). The name black powder obviously comes from its black color and not from its legendary namesake. Cannon-like artillery was also introduced in Europe around 1300 (see article artillery ).

Marcellin Berthelot and others disputed the historicity of Berthold Schwarz as early as the 19th century ; later also JR Partington (1960) and Jochen Gartz (2007) in their books. According to Partington, Bertold Schwarz is an invented figure like Robin Hood , who obviously served to ascribe the invention of gunpowder and the cannon to the German-speaking area.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Volker Schmidtchen summarized the state of research in Propylaea technology history. After that, Berthold Schwarz belongs to the realm of fable . Firearms were probably largely developed independently in various European countries by resourceful technicians at the beginning of the 14th century , although the exact course of action has not been satisfactorily clarified.

reception

There is an eight-sided fountain by Josef Alois Knittel on Freiburg's town hall square . It is made of yellow sandstone and is crowned by a statue by Berthold Schwarz. The following words can be found on it:

"The doctor, alchemist and inventor of gunpowder erected in 1855 to commemorate the fifth secular celebration "

The city originally wanted to erect the monument in 1851 and had already advertised it for a maximum price of 1650 guilders . The offers from Ignatz Michel and Ludwig Hügle from Heimbach were slightly higher, but were not accepted, as the two were viewed as "ordinary stone carvers". However, the city wanted to have the monument created by Knittel, who charged 2,700 guilders for it and then had it carried out by his pupil Joseph von Kopf .

literature

  • Franz Maria Feldhaus :  Schwarz, Berthold . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 617-619.
  • Jochen Gartz: The cultural history of explosives. ESMittler, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8132-0867-2
  • W. Gerd Kramer: The case of Berthold: work, fate and death. Verlag W. Gerd Kramer, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-922675-62-X
  • W. Gerd Kramer: Berthold Schwarz. Chemistry and weapons technology in the 15th century. Oldenbourg, Munich 1995
  • Hans Jürgen Rieckenberg:  Berthold. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 162 ( digitized version ).
  • Eckart Roloff : Berthold Schwarz: Question mark about a Franciscan's gunpowder. In: Eckart Roloff: Divine flashes of inspiration. Pastors and priests as inventors and discoverers, Verlag Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2010, ISBN 978-3-527-32578-8 , pages 63-78 (with references to places of remembrance, museums, reception, plays, etc. on Schwarz). 2nd updated edition 2012 (paperback) ISBN 978-3-527-32864-2
  • JR Partington: A history of Greek Fire and Gunpowder , Johns Hopkins University Press 1960, 1999 (Chapter 3: The Legend of Black Berthold )
  • Wilfried Tittmann: The myth of the "Black Bergholt". In: Journal for historical weapons and costume studies. Volume 25, 1983, pp. 17-30.

Web links

Commons : Bertold Schwarz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Berthold Schwarz  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ADB 1910, see literature
  2. ↑ Also G. Köhler: The Development of Warfare and Warfare in the Age of Knights from the Middle of the 11th Century to the Hussite Wars , 1887 (quoted in detail by Partington)
  3. ^ Heinrich Hansjakob: The black Berthold, the inventor of gunpowder and firearms , Freiburg 1891
  4. ↑ Neue Deutsche Biographie 1955, see literature
  5. ^ A b Rosemarie Beck, Roland Meinig: Brunnen in Freiburg , Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, ISBN 3-7930-0550-X , p. 43f
  6. ↑ Partington, p. 96
  7. ↑ Volumes 1000 to 1600 , p. 313
  8. ↑ Michael Klant: Forgotten sculptors. In: Sculpture in Freiburg. 19th century art in public space , Freiburg 2000, pp. 164–172 ISBN 3-922675-77-8 , p. 166
personal data
SURNAME Schwarz, Berthold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berthold the Black; Bertholdus Niger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German religious and alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH 13th century or 14th century
DATE OF DEATH 14th Century